Practical tips for small biz owners

Archive for March, 2014

I’m not an intellectual property attorney. But I’ve had my work stolen enough times that I know how to protect myself.

It’s really important that you DO copyright your work officially through your government channels. Yes, most governments say that the moment you create something it’s copyrighted, but the fact is if someone steals your work, you have to prove you were the first one to create it.

If you’re in the USA, you can upload your material via the US Copyright Office website. If you upload your materials, it’s only $35 and it takes a few months for them to process your paperwork; if you mail hard-copy, the fee is $65 and it can take 9-12 months for them to process it. (Note: fees change, so check out the Copyright Office website for their current fees.)

I also took all my articles from the last year, put them together in one PDF, and uploaded the one bundle entitled, “Karyn Greenstreet 2013 articles.”

If I had sent them as separate PDF files, it would have cost me $35 for each PDF/item I submitted; because I bundled it into one PDF file, I paid just $35 for the whole submission.

Once you get your copyright number back from the government, put it on EVERYTHING: your website (if you copyrighted it), your forms, your student/group materials, etc. Let people clearly know that you have an official date stamp of when you created your materials in case someone copies your work.

This is especially important if you have created a program or system from scratch. You put a huge amount of time and effort into creating your materials and your process. Take the 15 minutes and $35 to protect it.

What about the Poor Man’s Copyright?

There is a concept called the Poor Man’s Copyright where you send a copy of your work to yourself in a sealed envelope, so that the date of copyright is established by the postmark. This is what the US Copyright Office has to say about that:

The practice of sending a copy of your own work to yourself is sometimes called a “poor man’s copyright.” There is no provision in the copyright law regarding any such type of protection, and it is not a substitute for registration.

What About Other Countries?

Many countries have agreements to honor each other’s copyrighted materials. Some countries do not have a copyright submission process, but recognize outside for-profit and non-profits companies that accept copyright submissions. It might be called a “copyright office” or an “intellectual property (IP) office” in your country.

One hint that a website is the official government website for copyright information and protection is that the URL of their website may have “gov” or “govt” in the name.

Be careful that you get to your official national government site for copyright information and applications. There are a lot of for-profit websites that offer to submit copyrights for you, but it’s not the same as getting the information directly from the government agency that does the work and knows the laws.

The best place to get your questions answered about copyrighting (and patents and trademarks) is your official government website devoted to the topic.

If you find a website for your country’s government office that I’ve not included in this blog post, please leave a comment so that we can all share the resources. Thanks!

The Final Story

So…what if someone does steal your website text? Read my blog post about Are Thieves Stealing Your Website Text? It includes information about what to do if you find that someone has broken your copyright.

It is well worth the time and money to officially copyright your work and your materials. Put time in your calendar right now to focus on this important task.